Absentee Ballots In Congress
Critical Analysis
According to the visual above (top), there have been 82 votes so far this year. On the 82nd vote, how many senators did not vote?
On average, five senators have been missing or failed to weigh in on each vote. (A senator failing to vote doesn’t always mean they’re absent, though it usually does.) According to the visual above (top), on how many of those 82 votes have all the senators voted?
The current party breakdown of the 118th Congress (2023–2025) is:
Majority Party: Democrats (48 seats)
Minority Party: Republicans (49 seats)
Other Parties: Independents (3 seats) -caucus with Democrats to give them the majority advantage
Total Seats: 100Because of the way the independents caucus (which party they vote/join committees/huddle with) Democrats currently have a two vote advantage in the Senate. Based on the visual above (bottom) were there any votes when the Democrats did not have a numerical advantage over Republicans?
Since the first session of Congress in 1789 through 2020, members of Congress have had to be present to vote. More than two centuries of thinking shifted quickly after the pandemic struck. As employers began implementing remote work policies, the proxy voting option, championed by then House Speaker Nancy Pelois, was meant to help politicians avoid spreading the virus by reducing travel and large gatherings on the House floor. (The Senate never allowed proxy voting on the Senate floor.) How does this scenario illustrate the concept of bicameralism?
The House and Senate are very different bodies. Party leaders and committees function differently in the House and Senate as well. The House elects a Speaker (Article 1, Section 2) who exerts great control. The Speaker is in charge of the calendar (what bills are debated and when that occurs) and influences the House Rules Committee in deciding the legislation to be considered. The Senate does not have a position similar to Speaker. In the Senate, the majority and minority leaders generally work together in
consultation with all members to determine the schedule. Every two years the entire membership of the House of Representatives is elected. Members vote
on the rules that apply for the next two years at the beginning of each new Congress. Only one-third of senators are elected every two years (two-thirds of the senators remain current members). Therefore, the Senate is a “continuous body.” The Senate does not adopt rules every two years but depends more on tradition and precedent when determining procedure. How do the differences in the House and Senate explain why the House allowed remote voting and the Senate did not?Proxy voting was implemented by then Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi. At the time, Kevin McCarthy, the Republican leader, (current House Speaker) has been a vocal opponent of proxy voting since its introduction, going as far as suing then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the sergeant-at-arms, and House clerk in an attempt to halt proxy voting from taking place. Joined by 20 other GOP representatives, the lawsuit (which ultimately failed) claimed the US Constitution only allowed for in-person voting and that proxy voting was unconstitutional. How does this scenario illustrate the concept of checks and balances.
The result of proxy (remote) voting was that hundreds of representatives, both Republicans and Democrats, spent the 116th and 117th sessions of Congress voting for countless pieces of legislation while barely spending time in the nation's Capitol. An Insider analysis from April 2022, for example, found two Democrat representatives that showed up to vote in person less than 7% of the time since proxy voting was instituted. Americans are allowed to vote by absentee ballot. Make a claim about whether congresspeople should be allowed the same privilege.
Make a claim about how proxy voting by members of congress impacts democracy.
Despite having a two member advantage, in the 82 votes cast in the Senate so far this year, Democrats have had an advantage among voting members of at least two votes only 30 percent of the time. In part, it’s because the party’s caucus has seen two members, Sens. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), missing dozens of votes for health reasons. But, in part, it’s because only 26 of the 51 members of the caucus have missed no votes at all. In fact, none of the 82 votes that the Senate has taken this year has seen every seated member casting a vote. If you had an attendance record like some of these most absent senators, how would your school or job react?
Based on the visual below* identify the Senators who have missed the most votes.
Learning Extension
Check out the WAPO graphics and story on congressional absenteeism.
Action Extension
Contact your senators and tell them what you think about their attendance record .
Visual Extension*
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